Par redaction.78actu
Published on 26 Jul 22 at 12:42
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The faithful theSaint Germain churchof Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines), were afraid. Very scared. “Some cried. Children especially cried”testified one of the parishioners to 78actu.
Sunday July 24, 2022around 6:50 p.m., a man interrupted the celebration of the messe by his cris and his full of nonsense. A parishioner came to meet him. In return, the man headbutted him in the face. According to our information, he had two broken teeth.
It all started just before second reading.
“He came in and threw his things in a corner. There was a backpack, keys and a phone. Then he stood in front of the altar. He knelt down. He lay down. Nobody paid attention to him. »
“Satan Has Entered Me”
It was when he got up that he started screaming.
“He called us hypocrites. Shitty Christians. He said that he was made to pass for a jester. It was then that a rather tall man approached him and told him to leave. The other asked him if he wanted to fight. That’s when there was the whim. Others stepped in to bring it under control. »
“He was insulting on the fly. He accused the Church of being racist when he came to pray like a Muslim. He was screaming: Satan has penetrated into me! We have to sacrifice some of them… I don’t want to hear the words of the priest. He also said he was the second son of God because his blood was the blood of Jesus. All while struggling and spitting. »
“We were wondering what was in the bag”
The priest temporarily stopped the mass. “Afterwards, when calm returned, he asked us to pray for this man. »
Looking back, this parishioner told us that “everyone was scared. We were wondering what was in the bag…”
A fairly legitimate request as the Catholic Church entered prayer this week, six years after the terrorist assassination of Father Hamel in (Seine-Maritime).
“A state of dementia”
Present during the office, Christophe Bentz, municipal councilor of the right-wing opposition group Audace for Saint-Germain and RN deputy for Haute-Marne (52), described this event as “very shocking”.
“It is a very serious incident that took place during the mass where there were families. It is the first time that I have witnessed something so violent in a church. The person seemed to be in a state of insanity. She was extremely determined and seemed very angry with Christians. I keep thinking about the man who first tried to reason with her and received that very violent headbutt. I called the police and, while waiting for her to arrive, it took more than a dozen people to subdue the individual who had a lot of strength. It is very worrying what happened. What will this person do when he finds freedom? One wonders if he might not come back.”
The question of security at the entrance arises. The mayor, Arnaud Péricard, assured that he was going to “contact the parish in order to improve that of the offices and thus protect the faithful. »
There is already a silent alarm
As Arnaud Péricard, the mayor of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, announced on his Facebook page, the City immediately approached the parish to improve the security of offices and thus protect the faithful. The opportunity for both parties to take stock of the tools already available to the parish and the measures to be improved or developed.
“All places of worship in the City are equipped with the same system that exists in our schools. It is a box for triggering a silent alarm. When it is activated, in the event of an intrusion or a problem, it arrives directly on the radios of the municipal police and this indicates the place, explains William Petrovic, deputy mayor in charge of security in Saint-Germain-en-Laye . It’s in place, but it’s not always necessarily well used. In this case, it was not triggered. There is surely a little training to be done on the behavior to adopt in the face of this type of event. With the parish, we have reviewed the procedures and we are thinking together so that this alarm is optimized. »
The municipality intends to use all the means at its disposal to strengthen the security of the parish.
“Today we have 3 cameras surrounding the church, two in front and one behind. We are going to be even more attentive and any suspicious behavior will give rise to an alert and the dispatch of a municipal or national police patrol. »
At the same time, the City will ask its urban supervision center to contact all public buildings to check that this silent alarm system is working properly and to conduct an awareness campaign among the people concerned.
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For our witness, a good idea would be to appoint “a person at the entrance to the church to watch over the community. »
According to our information, no lead favors a terrorist dynamic in this event. “We are more in an act that falls under psychiatry,” says a source. Expertise should enable the courts to guide their decision: trial or internment.
Philippe Roudeillat and Francois Desserre.
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